PIP also known, as Picture in Picture mode is an exciting feature in Google Chrome browser. It allows users to watch online videos in a resizable window on top of other tabs using PIP Web API. Following some simple steps can help you in enjoying your favorite YouTube movies or videos while multitasking other activities. Enabling PIP mode Chrome depends on two factors – website support and Chrome version you use.
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Default PIP Mode in Version 70+
Google introduced this feature long time back on Android but make it official on desktop version from version 70. You can now have this feature in Google Chrome browser without any extensions. Though Chrome will support this feature by default, it depends on the website developers to make use of this. This essentially means you will not be able to use PIP mode unless the website supports it.
We believe more developers will adopt this to make use of growing video trending.
Popular sites like YouTube already supports the PIP mode in Google Chrome. Open your favorite video and right click on it. You will see the context menu like below.
Immediately again press right click to see another context menu like below.
Choose Picture in Picture option. Now you will see the video separated from the payer and floats on the screen.
- The video will be on top all windows of Chrome and other applications. This means you can type on Word document while seeing the video in PIP mode.
- The Chrome tab that plays the video will show an icon indicating PIP mode is enabled on that tab.
- Closing the Chrome tab will also close the video.
- You can resize the video, pause or close it to view back on the main player.
- The main player will show, “The video is playing in picture-in-picture mode” when you enabled PIP mode.
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For Unsupported Websites
As mentioned, website developers need to use the PIP API to enable the floating video option. However, you can use the plugin from the Google developer to view the currently playing video in Chrome in PIP mode. Go to Chrome web store and add the Picture-in-Picture extension to your browser.
It will add an icon next to the address bar like many other extensions.
Open a website that plays a video. Click on the extension icon to move the video to PIP mode.
You can view the demo of the extension here by using the toggle “Picture-in-Picture” button.
For Chrome Version 68 and 69
Earlier Chrome version of 68 or 69 uses PIP mode as an experimental feature. You need to enable the flags “chrome://flags/#enable-picture-in-picture” and “chrome://flags/#enable-surfaces-for-videos” and use an extension from GitHub.
Now, the same GitHub extension is available in Chrome store as an official Chrome extension. So you don’t need to play around the flags, simply download and install the extension to enjoy the PIP mode feature as explained above.
How to use PIP mode in Android devices?
The approach to enable PIP mode in Android powered smartphones and tablets is almost same as that of desktop version of Google Chrome. Just launch the Chrome application and play your video in full screen. Afterwards, simply press home button and the video will automatically resize to for your requirements.
Summary
Picture in Picture mode is undoubtedly useful feature to enjoy the videos while doing some other tasks. So, enable the option using the extension for now and enjoy the videos. We are sure, later all websites will start using PIP API and offer this function.
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